On-admission serum 25(OH)D level and mortality within one year in older patients.

Background: Mounting evidence suggests that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher risk of many chronic non-skeletal, age-associated diseases as well as mortality.

Aim: To determine, in older patients aged ≥ 80, the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its association with comorbidity, laboratory tests, length of stay and mortality within one year from blood withdrawal on admission to acute geriatrics ward.

Methods: We retrospectively surveyed electronic hospital health records of 830 older patients.

Mortality in the Oldest-Old Adults After Discharge From Acute Geriatric Ward.

To examine risk factors for post-discharge mortality in the oldest-old patients. We have assessed the risk factors for mortality after discharge from acute geriatric ward in 448 patients aged ≥90. Low albumin, high urea, and full dependence were risk factors for mortality within 1 month and within 1 year after discharge from hospital.

Mortality Predictors in the Oldest-Old in an Acute Geriatric Ward.

Background: Hospitalization is an inherently serious event in the oldest-old, as the risk of complications associated with it increases exponentially with age and can lead to death. Despite the size of the problem, few studies have been dedicated to determining mortality predictors among hospitalized older patients, particularly among the oldest-old. Objectives: To examine in-hospital mortality predictors in the oldest-old adults hospitalized in an acute geriatric ward.

Falls in oldest-old adults hospitalized in acute geriatric ward.

Purpose: The study aims to identify risk factors for falling among acutely ill older patients, hospitalized in acute geriatric ward.

Methods: A retrospective study of 260 cases of patients who had fallen and 439 controls was conducted in a geriatric ward. We retrieved from the electronic hospital records data including patient demographics, medical diagnoses, and laboratory results, and drugs taken prior to the fall were reviewed.

Length of hospital stay among oldest-old patients in acute geriatric ward.

Purpose: To examine risk factors for prolonged hospital length of stay (LOS) in the oldest-old inpatients aged ≥ 90.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study was performed in acute Geriatrics Department at Kaplan Medical Center. The target population was the oldest-old inpatients aged ≥ 90 hospitalized with acute illness.

Minocycline induced lupus with yellow colored chylous exudative pleural effusion.

Ninety years old male was admitted to hospital due to breathlessness. The prominent findings were extensive blue-grey skin pigmentation and large left chylothorax. Drug induced lupus was diagnosed due to either minocycline chronic treatment or no alternative illness to explain his sub-acute disease.

Moderate 'multivitamin' supplementation improved folate and vitamin B12 status in the elderly.

The dependent elderly are widely considered to be at higher risk of nutritional problems. Suboptimal micronutrient intake might put the elderly, especially those living in nursing homes, at high risk of morbidity. So far, no public authority, except for the Israel Ministry of Health, has issued particular recommendations for micronutrient supplementation for the elderly.

The Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) as a Mortality Predictor after Surgery in Elderly Patients.

The increasing range of surgery in elderly patients reflects the changing demography where in the next 10 years one quarter of the population will be 65 years of age or older. There is presently no consensus concerning the optimal predictive markers for postoperative morbidity and mortality after surgery in older patients with an appreciation that physical frailty is more important than chronological age. In this retrospective analysis, we have compared the impact of age and the calculated preoperative Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) on early (30-day) and late (one-year) mortality in a group of patients >75 years of age dividing them into an "older old" cohort (75-84 years of age, Group A) and an "oldest old" group (≥85 years of age, Group B).

Differential impact of some risk factors on trochanteric and cervical hip fractures.

Aim: To investigate the potential distinct risk factors associated with trochanteric and cervical hip fractures.

Methods: Elderly patients aged 65 years and older (n = 1161) were admitted to the orthopedic department with hip fractures during the years 2006-2011. Demographic and clinical data, as well as routine blood tests, were retrieved from the patient electronic medical records.

Chronic hepatitis C in the aged: much ado about nothing or nothing to do?

Hepatitis C is a common infection worldwide. It is a major cause of cirrhosis and its complications, including hepatocellular carcinoma and liver transplantation. Treatment of hepatitis C has dramatically improved since its discovery.

Organizing pneumonia and non-necrotizing granulomata on transbronchial biopsy: coexistence or bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia secondary to Mycobacterium kansasii disease.

Mycobacterium kansasii disease was diagnosed in an 85-year-old woman admitted to the hospital for cough and gradually worsening breathlessness. Transbronchial biopsy indicated either non-necrotizing granulomata or bronchiolitis obliterans organizing pneumonia (BOOP). She was cured with combined therapy of specific anti-mycobacterial medications and systemic steroids.

Association between vitamin B12 levels and mortality in hospitalized older adults.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of various medications on vitamin B12 status and the association between vitamin B12 levels and mortality.

Design: Retrospective cross-sectional study.

Setting: Four internal medicine departments and the geriatrics department at Kaplan Medical Center (KMC), Rehovot and Harzfeld Geriatrics Hospital, Gedera, Israel.

[The approach to chronic pain management in the elderly].

Chronic pain is a common, yet frequently overlooked and undertreated complaint among older patients. It may result in an impairment of the function and quality of life of these patients. Chronic pain is a syndrome, which influences and is influenced by many potential factors (physiological psychological and social), all of which require treatment to achieve an optimal clinical outcome.

Fever of unknown origin in older adults.

Evaluation of elderly patients who have fever of unknown origin (FUO) requires a different perspective from that needed for young patients. Differential diagnosis often varies with age, and presentation of the disease frequently is nonspecific and symptoms difficult to interpret. Noninfectious diseases are the most frequent cause of FUO in the elderly and temporal arteritis the most frequent specific cause.

Profile and prognosis of febrile elderly patients with bacteremic urinary tract infection.

Objective: To describe the profile of elderly patients with bacteremic urinary tract infections (UTI) and correlate clinical and laboratory findings with the outcome in order to identify independent predictors of mortality.

Methods: This retrospective study took place in a large community-based, geriatric hospital and included 191 patients aged 75-105 years with urine and blood cultures simultaneously positive for bacterial organisms. Records were analysed for demographic information, clinical and laboratory data over a 29 month period.

A "fishy remedy": an unusual transmission of Vibrio vulnificus infection.

This case report describes a unique transmission of Vibrio vulnificus infection. A 38-year-old woman with recurrent cellulitis and chronic ulcer on her leg developed necrotizing cellulitis and sepsis caused by V. vulnificus.